"One day, while he was pouring the weaker solution into a bulb, the phone rang. In the process of answering the phone, he accidentally tipped the bulb over before it had enough time to finish cleaning out the previous etching. When he returned to his work, he accidentally knocked the glass bulb off the workbench and onto the floor. To his surprise it did not shatter, as etched bulbs normally did, but bounced a few times and then rolled under the workbench"

I'm always intrigued by the cognitive dissonance in rewarding inventors for doing difficult things, then lauding them for accidentally stumbling upon something.

Yes I get that you make your own luck etc. But luck doesn't seem to be accounted for in our present IP system.